Basu: Governor, don't derail new Iowa passenger train

GOP efforts to pull plug puts central Iowa train on life support

Oct. 22, 2013

Iowans are hungry for travel alternatives, and passenger trains may be just the ticket if they can gain political support. / Register File Photo

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The good news is that the hope of passenger rail service through Iowa isnít dead yet. The bad news is that itís on life support, with Iowa House Republicans ready to pull the plug but Gov. Terry Branstad saying Monday that he was still weighing whether to return a $53 million federal grant to get it going.

Please, Governor, donít return it. Iowans want train travel.

Weíre hungry for quicker, less gas-reliant alternatives to driving and flying. Trains beat risking icy roads during those long Midwestern winters. They ease highway congestion and save billions in highway upkeep. And with the federal government providing start-up funds and Illinois planning Amtrak service between Chicago and the Quad Cities, thereís no better time for Iowa.

The train service from Chicago could eventually run from Davenport through Iowa City, Grinnell, Newton, Des Moines and Atlantic to Council Bluffs and Omaha. It could gradually include up to seven round-trips a day between Chicago and Des Moines, with speeds initially of 79 miles an hour, eventually reaching 110. It would take six and a half hours from Chicago to Omaha ó three less than the bus.

Other countries have long outpaced the United States in train travel, a quick, cost-effective, relaxing way to experience the countryís changing landscapes. So whatís Iowaís problem? Since 2010, the Republicans in charge of the Iowa House have repeatedly rejected spending $20.6 million in matching state funds. What began as an $87 million federal grant to the Iowa Department of Transportation to establish service between the Quad Cities and Iowa City (since reduced to $53 million) was part of a $230 million federal grant to Illinois and Iowa. But in May, the House Republicans rejected even $5.5 million for a state infrastructure appropriations bill for transportation projects.

Finally, by last week, state Sen. Matt McCoy who chairs the Senateís transportation budget subcommittee, had had it. Saying House Republicans will never approve the funds, the Des Moines Democrat said the Iowa Department of Transportation should return the $53 million to the Federal Railroad Administration and let it go to ďmore progressive states than Iowa.Ē

House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, doesnít deny his part, telling the Register, ďIf he wants to give us credit for saving taxpayers tens of millions of dollars, and potentially even hundreds of millions of dollars, yes, that is correct. That is what House Republicans are about ó making sure that we are wise users of taxpayersí dollars.Ē

But they arenít uniformly against spending taxpayer dollars to help businesses. This summer, when the Iowa Economic Development Authority board approved $20 million in incentives to Microsoft to expand its data center in West Des Moines, we heard no opposition from House Republicans. Nor when the state approved $18 million in tax credits for Facebookís data center or untold amounts to Google. Iowa research and development credit refunds to companies will reach $120 million over three years, primarily to such giants as Rockwell Collins, Deere & Co. and DuPont Pioneer. And as critics have pointed out, those companies would do the research anyway.

The state this year also approved $22.5 million in tax increment financing credits for Principal Financial. It reportedly offered fertilizer plant Cronus Chemical about $35 million to build a plant in Mitchell County. The Egypt-based Orascom Construction Industries was awarded $50 million in tax credits to build a fertilizer plant in Lee County with the option of another $50 million over two years. The state has even been giving out incentives for companies to move from one Iowa city to another ó one of those in transportation.

Yet legislative Republicans are quibbling over $20.6 million to establish passenger rail service to Chicago ó even when Iowa has a $1.6 billion surplus.

Could there be another reason? Could it be, as someone posted in response to my blog post, because Paulsen is employed by a Cedar Rapids trucking company and trucking companies compete with trains? Or could it be a form of hyper-partisan warfare similar to what culminated in the federal government shutdown, since this was a Democratic initiative?

Republicans and Democrats both ride trains. As fuel costs skyrocket, Amtrak just had its best fiscal year ever, transporting a record 31.6 million passengers with ticket sales at a record $2.1 billion. It has broken records nine years in a row.

The lack of direct train and plane travel in and out of Iowa has long been one the single biggest drawbacks to living in this otherwise wonderful state and preventing others from experiencing all it has to offer. Please, Gov. Branstad, donít let this golden opportunity to connect us to the rest of the country die.